#charles lightoller

[epicfroggz]

banjo lights

[titanicincquo]

Lightoller: Do you think I'm a sunrise or a sunset? Wilde: You're a category 5 hurricane.

[dueliz]

While I’m at it, here’s some more old art I was too shy to post before

[buffshipper8490]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65040700/chapters/167240293

Intro

I'm a 90s kid. I remember when the movie came out in '97, what a cultural phenomenon it became. I remember hearing Celine Dion croon "My Heart Will Go On" over the radio everyday. I remember watching it on VHS, HBO, or on TV with my folks when I was older. I remember Kate Winslet was the first naked woman I ever saw, and when I hit puberty, she was my first crush. Since then, I've watched this film every year since I rediscovered it after a bad breakup with my first girlfriend. To this day, 15 years later and married with kids, I have a "Titanic Week" in April, where I'll watch the film and historical documentaries. I even have a Titanic themed tattoo. I love this movie. Now, there's been a few "making-of" books based on this movie but—unbelievably—never a full-on novelization. Using the script and the film, deleted scenes and all, for better or worse, this is my attempt. I hope you enjoy.

Rating Mature

Summary

An "unofficial" novelization of James Cameron's Titanic (1997). In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett searches for the rare diamond "The Heart of the Ocean" inside of the wreck of RMS Titanic, the ill-fated ocean liner that sunk during her maiden voyage in 1912. Instead of finding the Heart of the Ocean in a safe salvaged from the wreck, however, Brock uncovers a drawing of a young nude woman wearing that diamond. A 101-year old woman named Rose Calvert claims to be that woman, and to Brock and his crew recalls her past as socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater and her star-crossed love affair with a poor artist named Jack Dawson on the Unsinkable Titanic...

Chapter 1 The Wreck Treasure hunter and explorer Brock Lovett searches for a rare diamond called "The Heart of the Ocean" inside RMS Titanic, the ill-fated ocean liner that sunk on her maiden voyage in 1912...

Likes ❤️ and Reblogs 🔁 are much appreciated!

[itsazilyyy]

This is so old but I really love it. Definitely inspired by that one twitter art trend.

[byrnethemooringline]

PLEASE ROAST THE LIFE OUT OF ME !! 😈💜

We got som TRASH 1997 Charles lightoller art. Feel free to ROAST the life outta me because I'ma ruin this man's whole career >:3 wait, i just actually did

[lightdoch]

C. H. Lightoller, from his autobiography Titanic and Other Ships, 1935

[fangirlmenace]

TL/DR: Maybe Ismay wasn't the heartless villain that his nemesis William Hearst made him out to be

Anyone who's seen my recent Titanic posts has probably figured out I'm not J. Bruce Ismay's biggest fan, but I've been thinking a lot about him recently and I've decided he's a fascinating case of "Yes but what would YOU have done?"

I think it's fair to say that our biggest issue with this guy is that he survived while 1517 other people didn't. Andrews didn't even try to save himself, Captain Smith knew he had to go down with the ship, Lightoller was damn lucky, Murdoch...well we're not having THAT debate right now. My point is, Ismay survived by getting on a lifeboat when he probably shouldn't have, especially given "[h]e was the highest-ranking White Star official to survive" (Wikipedia). I'm not debating that. What I'm willing to debate is whether he did anything more or less than your average guy would have done.

Again according to his Wikipedia page, "Ismay had helped supervise loading of passengers in lifeboats" before he saved himself.

This is certainly not nothing. I'm willing to bet the Astors weren't helping load any lifeboats before Madeleine got off (JJ Astor apparently SLICED OPEN HIS LIFEBELT to show his wife what was inside, which seems like a crazy thing to do under the circumstances, but I digress). So I'm willing to give him credit where credit is due on that point. It's reasonable to assume that at least some of the people who survived that night owe their lives at least in part to Ismay's actions. Good on him.

The British inquiry apparently agreed with my opinion on this! See the following: "Mr. Ismay, after rendering assistance to many passengers, found C collapsible, the last boat on the starboard side, actually being lowered. No other people were there at the time. There was room for him and he jumped in. Had he not jumped in he would merely have added one more life — namely, his own — to the number of those lost." (Emphasis mine)

Ismay wasn't fighting anyone for a seat on a boat. He wasn't using any subterfuge to get that seat. He just looked around, saw an empty seat with no one to take it, and took it for himself. Is this really such a bad choice?? Should someone really be criticized for saving their own life, especially after they've helped save a bunch of others first? I don't think so. Like the British inquiry said, half the people on that ship were unfortunately going to die no matter what Ismay did (yes, in part because of his bad choices regarding lifeboats but also because of the regulations at the time, which he had nothing to do with, but that were simply not prepared for ships as big as Titanic - she was called that for a reason, after all). I see no reason why Ismay had to be one of them. Furthermore, I'm afraid I can't say with full certainty - and this is really why I'm making this post - that if I were Ismay that night I would have done anything differently than him.

That's the truth. Maybe that makes me a coward but if I were in a seemingly unsurvivable scenario and I saw a chance to survive I'm sure I would take it. That's why I've realized I can't exactly blame Ismay for that.

Now we come to Thomas Andrews (my beloved /hj).

Ismay's mirror, the guy who was essentially on the same level as him in every way (at least socially, and referring to the fact that they and the captain were the trifecta running this ship in every adaptation I've seen - Ismay might have technically been something akin to Andrews's boss but that's not my point here), but made a wildly different choice and as a result achieved a wildly different outcome.

Andrews would have been well within his rights to do exactly what Ismay did, and he would have been criticized as well. But he didn't. I'm not here to make any moral judgements against either of them, I don't want to say Andrews is a better person than Ismay, although maybe he is. What I will say is Andrews was probably a braver man than Ismay. That's why Ismay was branded a coward (perhaps rightfully so) while Andrews seems to have fallen in the public consciousness somewhere between martyr and hero. But the fact that Andrews made the selfless choice doesn't mean Ismay had any less right to make the perhaps more selfish choice. At the end of the day it all comes down to a simple question: "Am I willing to die tonight?" Andrews said yes. Ismay said no. I think both of those are understandable and valid reactions to this situation.